Mozambique: Beira Airport renovation to be completed by year-end, says Airports Authority

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Mozambique: Beira Airport renovation to be completed by year-end, says Airports Authority

10:38 CAT | 06 Oct 2025

Screengrab: Aeroportos de Moçambique

The public company Aeroportos de Moçambique expects to complete the renovation works at Beira International Airport, in the centre of the country, by the end of this year, ensuring greater regional competitiveness.

“We are currently working extensively on Beira International Airport. We are working on rebuilding the cargo terminal, and we believe that by the end of this year, the work will be completed and Beira International Airport will be competitive with other airports in the region,” said the Chair of the Board of Directors (CEO) of Aeroportos de Moçambique, Amélia Muendane.

Speaking to the media in Maputo on Friday, on the sidelines of the inauguration ceremony of the company’s new administrators, she explained that the ongoing work is part of a plan to modernise airport infrastructure.

Regarding the new administrators, according to Muendane, the state-owned company is currently separating the air navigation and airport departments to align with international aviation standards and ensure greater efficiency in the management of airport services.

“We had combined air navigation management and airport management into a single department. This separation aims to ensure greater efficiency and transparency in air navigation management and airport management,” said Amélia Muendane, emphasising that the company also aims to ensure there are no conflicts in prioritising actions between the two departments.

“In recent years, we have experienced major problems in air navigation because we have prioritised infrastructure investments over air navigation,” she added.

Regarding the addition of more administrators to the company’s structure, increasing from three to five, Muendane said the goal is to ensure, for example, that the financial department is separated from the commercial department, allowing for greater transparency in budget execution.

“We had a major conflict, when the one who collects is the same one who executes the eviction, so this understanding by the State that the commercial area be separated from the financial area will allow for greater transparency in the mobilisation of resources and the execution of our budgets,” she explained.

Eliminating debt is a priority

Meanwhile, the company has acknowledged that eliminating debt is one of the public company’s priorities, alongside the need to improve its operational area.

Saíde Júnior, reappointed as administrator for the Finance department, emphasised that the priority is to reduce the company’s debt and consolidate financial sustainability, without neglecting investments for the modernisation and improvement of operations.

“What we will do is continue working, as we have been doing before, and during our term, we will work to remove the burden of debt from the company,” said Saide Júnior, in a statement to the press on Friday in Maputo, moments after being sworn in.

While not providing specific figures, the director explained that, to achieve this goal, the company will develop a clear debt restructuring plan, focusing on the most concrete actions to ensure the state-owned company can fully support its growth.

Another priority, he stated, is to keep the operational area functioning at full capacity, because “the company is built on the operational area, and if that area is not operational, if it is functioning poorly, then clearly the company will not exist.”

“Currently, the airport company is operating well, but there is room for improvement,” he said, adding that another challenge involves modernising its existing infrastructure.

In June of this year, Aeroportos de Moçambique announced in its annual report and accounts that it had nearly doubled its losses in 2024, reaching 1.531 billion meticais (20.8 million euros).

According to the document, Aeroportos de Moçambique had already recorded losses of 849.5 million meticais (11.5 million euros) in 2023, which therefore increased by 80.3% in one year. In 2022, it recorded losses of 820.5 million meticais (11.2 million euros), and in 2021, an equally negative net result of 215.6 million meticais (2.9 million euros).

Even so, the company stated in the document that passenger air traffic grew by 4.16% compared to 2023, reaching 2,055,435 passengers, and aircraft movements increased by 1.5% to 61,182. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, 2,296,370 passengers were transported in Mozambique in 2019, with 70,602 aircraft movements.

This growth in 2024 is explained by Aeroportos de Moçambique due to the performance of the national airline LAM, which accounts for 64% of passengers and, in that year, exceeded both 2023 figures and “the historic peak observed in 2019.”

Source: Lusa